(Image: King County Metro)

Source: Metro ridership dashboard

By Matt Dowell

Happy first birthday to Madison’s RapidRide G, a.k.a. the G bus, the G line, or just The G.

While the one-year anniversary or the line’s start was overshadowed by the city’s whipsawing on its transit planning around a single-block near the G, the reshaping of the Madison corridor deserves a look back and a look forward as the line begins its second year of service between the waterfront, First Hill, Capitol Hill, and Madison Valley.

“In the last year, Metro provided more than 49,000 service hours on the RapidRide G Line, helping spur tremendous growth in ridership,” a Metro blog post celebrating the bus rapid transit line’s first year reads.

Metro says the G Line is now “the 12th busiest route in our system,” averaging around 6,300 riders every weekday — about half the totals projected as the line was first being designed before the pandemic reset traffic and transportation habits across the city.

Metro says that early surveys indicate riders enjoy the G more than regular Metro routes and that it’s boosted bus usage across the Madison Avenue region: “Three routes, the 10, 11 and 12 — those most closely aligned with the G Line corridor — when combined with the new G Line, have seen weekday ridership grow by over 80 percent!”

Transit riders are enjoying the fruits of a project that, by the time buses started running, was three years of construction plus nine years of planning in the making. The line cost $134 million including $60 million in federal funding and was Metro and SDOT’s most ambitious bus rapid transit project to date. It required an overhaul of Madison Avenue traffic patterns and the addition of dedicated bus lanes along most of the 2.5 mile route in order for buses to arrive every six minutes, as promised.

The duration and impact of the construction along the diagonal arterial brought some infamy to RapidRide G long before it turned one, made worse by a number of visible snafus: streets paved, torn up, repaved; orange metal plates at some stations that linger to this day (SDOT says they’ll be removed soon).

Lewis

Jordan Lewis, a Capitol Hill resident hoping to cash in on the buzz and the frustration, dressed up as an under construction RapidRide G line station for Halloween last year.

“The long, protracted construction process was the only thing that people along Madison talked about,” said Lewis. “It was such a topical thing.”

Lewis now rides the G downtown to work each day and considers the project worthwhile. But not everyone in the neighborhood does. After traffic alterations on Madison that streamline bus flow, many drivers find themselves in a Derek Zoolander-like predicament: they can’t turn left.

Some Capitol Hill businesses feel this has cut them off from their customers, hurting revenue.

“Friends of mine who aren’t from Capitol Hill have complained about how difficult it is to turn into this neighborhood because all the left turns are gone,” said Michael Go, co-owner of Pacific Supply, the hardware store that’s been at 1417 12th Avenue since 1995.

“If you aren’t familiar with the traffic patterns here you’re kind of lost.”

Go says that Pacific Supply’s sales were returning to pre-pandemic levels before RapidRide construction on Madison began in 2021. Then sales dipped about 5% and they haven’t bounced all the way back.

Sabrina Tinsley, chef-owner at La Spiga which has been a few doors down from Pacific Supply since 2006, feels the same pains.

“We’ve had reports from our guests that they avoid the area because it’s too frustrating,” she said.

“Since [the street reconfiguration], there’s no logical way into the Pike-Pine corridor from Madison. You have to zig zag around and try to figure out how to access the spaces that you were once able to easily access.”

“I’ve seen so many cars doing U-turns or illegal left hand turns because they can’t figure it out. Suffice it to say there’s a lot of confusion and frustration.”

“We’ve seen a decline in our business and the decline is increasing.”

Tinsley says that the G was supposed to bring new folks, like tourists from downtown, into the neighborhood. But La Spiga hasn’t seen an increase in tourist business.

And though Metro’s seen an impressive bump in ridership, so far they’re serving just over half the 12,000 daily G riders that were projected during planning.

“I think there could have been better communication to the businesses here about what we could expect,“ said Tinsley. She mentioned that there were frequent conversations pre-COVID, but then talking stopped and construction moved forward without input.

SDOT told CHS that they “met regularly with G line area stakeholders for many years.”

Recent prodding has reopened that channel. Recent changes along E Union have come from it.

“Over the last few months, communications were restarted primarily at the request of Dunn & Hobbes, the owner of [Chophouse Row, home to Pacific Supply and La Spiga], Hunters Capital, and Madrona Real Estate along with business representatives on 12th Avenue north of Madison Street,” said SDOT in a statement.

“While development in the area is meant to maximize the appeal of dense urban living, coming off the impacts of COVID and challenges of major street and sidewalk construction, representatives had specific concerns about customers who drive from the Eastside or neighborhoods like Madison Park and Madrona. They are having a hard time getting to their destinations or are confused by the new traffic pattern.”

The result of the outreach effort perhaps fell short of SDOT’s hopes for a better relationship with the neighborhood’s businesses. After announcing a litany of changes for the stretch of Union around the busy 12th and Madison intersection, the city quickly backpedaled on the update while still moving forward with changes to bike lanes and the addition of a much needed pedestrian signal that will make for a safer passage for Metro coaches.

(Image: King County Metro)

Source: Metro ridership dashboard

So, who is riding RapidRide G?
Merlin Rainwater, for one.

“The G line could have been designed for me,” Rainwater, a resident and volunteer at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, said. “I call it my personal chauffeur service. I live halfway up the hill on 25th, one long block north of Madison.”

“I generally use my bike as my number one mode of transportation. But I’m going to be 80 next year and the hills have gotten steeper than they used to be. Being able to put my bike on the G line instead of rolling it uphill is a major gift.”

Rainwater loves that G riders store their bikes inside the bus rather than up front, as on a usual Metro bus. This is one of a few modifications that streamline boarding, keeping the buses moving.

“There are three bike racks inside that you roll your bike into. You don’t have to wrangle with the heavy front end racks.”

“It also has the advantage that your bike isn’t out there for people to grab. Bikes get stolen off those outside racks.”

Like many, she uses the G to access the ferries at the newly renovated waterfront.

“I can just roll my bike on, and then it takes me 15-20 minutes to get down there. I can ride my bike up and down the waterfront, or back and forth to Alki.”

She particularly likes the new all-ages swings at Waterfront Park with views of the Sound.

Josh Holland, communications director at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, who has gone carless since 2008, is also a fan of the G. He moved to Capitol Hill from Columbia City last year and was happy to have the bus close to his new place.

“As I was looking, the G line was attractive. It’s not quite the Link but it’s pretty fast and reliable.”

He has a friend from Bremerton who is not a big bus rider but was excited to be able to go from the ferry up to his place.

Said Lewis, who wore the Halloween costume, “I’ve definitely used it to go to places along the Madison corridor that I wouldn’t have walked to or driven to.“

“I go to the library more frequently. I can take it downtown to go to Benaroya or Symphony to get on light rail, or to the ferry terminal.”

“If I go the other direction, getting down to Madison Valley is super convenient. Not having to take a car up and down Madison is a boon, especially dealing with parking or wanting to have a few drinks.”

The RapidRide G project, of course, was more than just a transit improvement. As with other RapidRide projects that required streets to be torn up, the city’s agencies seized an opportunity to make infrastructure updates. Along Madison, Seattle Public Utilities replaced about 8,000 lineal feet of water main, some of which dated back to 1890. They laid 3,500 lineal feet of new storm drain pipe.

SDOT put in 3.8 miles of new or replaced sidewalk, planted 108 trees, and put down more than two miles of asphalt pavement and nine miles of concrete pavement along the corridor.

It’s heavy duty concrete that can withstand the frequent and weighty buses. SDOT told City Council this year, “You’re looking at 8 to 14 inches and in some places 18 inches [of concrete] with reinforced steel.”

“You need the street to be in the best condition for all modes. If you have the street in the best condition for transit, usually it’s in the best condition for every mode of transportation.”

Younger riders are noticing the bus, too – perhaps a sign of its potential to be a neighborhood icon for the next generation.

“We see it from our window and it’s actually how my toddler learned the letter G,” said Lorena Soriano-Dixon of First Hill.

“We ride it to pick him up from school and to get around after visiting the aquarium.”

“He’s learning his alphabet because of RapidRide. There’s the E, the D, the G. We talk about how Maggie takes the D to Ballard, we take the G.”

He has a squishy red Metro bus toy that he waves at G drivers for honks.

“We’ve met so many of our neighbors riding the bus and even though we don’t have immediate family in town we feel like we’re a part of the Seattle family with daily access to the G line.”

(Image: King County Metro)

What’s next?
What does the G’s wins mean for other transit in the city? Metro says the RapidRide J line which will connect the University District with Downtown via Eastlake is halfway through construction. The RapidRide I through Auburn, Kent and Renton will break ground this year. Both are due in 2027.

But neither of those projects matches the level of priority given to buses on Madison. And on the busy Denny corridor, SDOT recently decided not to extend bus-only lanes down the entire street. That change, which transit advocates have pushed for, would improve reliability for the notoriously slow 8 bus. But SDOT analysis indicated that removing a lane for cars “would cause severe traffic congestion in the area,” potentially doubling travel time for cars and freight. (Advocates are disputing SDOT’s methodology).

“I think that it’s foolishly short sighted to keep planning for more and more cars as the city grows,” said Rainwater. “We have to make it more and more convenient for people to not drive. And we have to make it less convenient to drive.”

There’s tension between the city we have today and the city we want for tomorrow. SDOT’s 20 year transportation plan, released last year, envisions that by 2044 63% of all trips will be made by walk, bike, or transit. In 2019 that number was estimated to be 34%.

Said La Spiga’s Tinsley, “I love New York City because of the transportation system and how efficient it is. I would love for Seattle to become that city.”

“It’s going to take a really strong infrastructure investment and a while for people to sign onto it for sure. It would be beneficial for everybody if we could get to that.”

“If I didn’t have a business my point of view would be very very different,” she laughed. “I have to be honest about that. I’m concerned about the here and now. It’s a struggle right now for the survival of my business.”

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